Twitter eyed Instagram before Facebook: report

Mike Luttrell, 16th April 2012

It's being reported that Twitter also had eyes on the social platform that was recently acquired for $1 billion.

Of course, the company that paid out that sum was Facebook, hoping to improve its technology when it comes to posting pictures and turning them viral. It's such an integral part of the Facebook experience, so anything that enhances that experience should be a win-win for consumers.

However, it's also a focal point of Twitter, which for a while didn't even offer its own photo sharing platform. According to the New York Times, the microblogging site was also interested in Instagram. It probably wasn't ready to shell out a cool billion dollars for it, though. However, its interest could very well have been what led Facebook to go as high as it did.

Instagram is a photo sharing app that gained massive popularity on the iPhone because of its intuitive user interface, seamless integration with the iPhone's camera, and the speed at which it uploads content.

For many, it became the de facto way to share pictures with fellow iPhone users. And as to be expected, there was a bit of backlash when Instagram said it would be moving to Android as well.

Part of the app's appeal was its exclusivity. For some, it felt like if Blackberry Messenger somehow made its way to the iPhone.

But Instagram is a free agent and can make apps for whatever platform it wants. And the vast majority of users don't care one way or the other. In fact, to many others, it is a move that's welcomed and embraced because it allows their reach to be greatly expanded.

Before being purchased by Facebook, Instagram had been downloaded more than 30 million times on the App Store, and Apple named it the best iPhone app of 2011.